Kinect used to control armchair

Yesterday at the MIX11 event, Microsoft demonstrated some of the new things that can be achieved with the Kinect motion controller. Microsoft created a special armchair that is completely controlled through the use of hand gestures that are read by the Kinect. The code to control the chair was created using the upcoming Kinect PC SDK that Microsoft will be releasing for developers to develop the Kinect using Visual Basic, C++ and C#. In the demonstration, the person sitting on the chair could easily direct the chair where to move, on its omnidirectional wheels. The chair was even capable of reclining – and all this was controlled using hand movements. No word if we’ll ever see a chair like this in the market, but Microsoft will be releasing the source code along with the SDK for developers and hobbyists to make Kinect chairs of their own. Hit the break to watch a demo video of the armchair in action: